II.5. Imagery, form and
interpretation
Before pointing out the different divices used by Okot P'Bitek
in his poems let us define the terms imagery, form and interpretation.
· Imagery is defined as a language that
produces pictures in the minds of people reading or listening (Hornby 2000:
596)
Imagery can be drefinided as comparisons,
descriptions and figures of speech that help the mind to form forceful or
beautiful pictures.
· Form is definided as the arrangement of parts
in a whole, especially in a work of art or a piece of writing
· Interpretation is a bringing out of the
meaning (a dramatic work, a character...)
While reading Okot P'Bitek, we find him using some devices:
1. Simile is a figure of speech that compares two
dissimilar things by using a key word such as like or as. For instance:
«It looks like an open ulcer/like the mouth of a field!»(SOL,P.37)
2. Hyperbole: is a deliberate exaggeration or
overstatement
«Clementine`s body resembles/ The ugly coat of the
hyena;/ She resembles the wild cat/ that has dipped its mouth in blood»
(SOL, P.37)
3. Metaphor: is a figure of speech in which one thing
is spoken in an imaginative way to describe something else. In section five,
Okot uses metaphor and simile, where dominant motif is the comparison of the
«graceful giraffe» symbolizes the beauty of the African woman and the
«monkey» stands for the ugliness of the white woman and those who ape
whites by wearing white people's wigs (SOL,PP.50-56)
4. Irony: is a figure of speech in which what is
meant is contrary to what the words appear to say. There is a dichotomy between
what is and what appears to be. For instance in section five of Song of Lawino,
the woman is not beautiful at all. After putting curly in her head, she becomes
like a chicken that has fallen in a pond. It is an irony to say that she is a
beautiful woman.
The devices that are most frequently and most effectively used
are apostrophe and lampoon.
5. Apostrophe: is a figure of speech in which a
person, a speaker directly addresses an absent person or personified quality,
object, or idea.
In this context, apostrophe is a device by which the
protagonist or persona directely addresses the interlocutor or imagined
audience. For instance, Lawino frently addresses her husband using such
expressions as «Listem, my husband», «my husband, Ocol»,
«Ocol, my friend» (SOL, P.41). Apostrophe is also simultaneously with
the satirical mode of the lampoon.
6. Lampoon: is a piece of writing that attacks and
makes fun of a person. For instance: «The name of the beautiful one/is
Clementine/ her lips are red-hot/ Like glowing chancool» (SOL, P.37).
7. Repetition: Is the fact of doing or saying the
same thing many times. For instance:
«You kiss her on the cheek
As whithe people do,
You kiss her open- Sore lips
As white people do
You suck the slimy saliva
From each other's mouths
As white people do.» (SOL, P.44).
8. Parallelisme : Is a speech which recquires some
variable features of the patterns (components) some contrasting elements chich
are parallel in resped to their position in pattern.
In Song of Lawino, one can cite section (11), were
repetition and parallelism help to quicken the pace of the verse as in the
following passage:
«The women Yodel
And make ululation!
They yodel and make ululation
Not because they understand,
They yodel so that their voices may be heard
So that their secret loverdman hear them,
They shout and make ululations
Because they are tired
Tired of the useless talk
Tired of the insults
And the lies of
The speakers» (SOL, P.109).
Form
In Song of Lawino Okot P' Bitek replaces the regular rhythm
and rhyme of the Acoli version with irregular free verse in English version.
His lines in Song of Lawino usually end with strong emphasis. He buils his line
around the words he wants to emphasise, crowding weaker words into the
beginning of the line:
«They mould the tips of the cotton nests
So that they are shard
And with these they prick
The chest oftheir men!» (SOL, P.39).
This gives a staccato effect to his verse.
Sometimes Okot succefully softens these lines to
conveyLawino's wistiful moods. The section from the beginning of chapter four
illustrates. The lines flow smoothly to express Lawino's gentler mood.
In Song of Ocol, the emphatic stresses at the end of
Okot's lines are replaced by much more varied patterns of stress. The lines are
shorter and Okot often misses out structural words which sometimes crowd out
the lines in Song of Lawino. Okot also makes very effective use of one
or two syllable lines to provide shock changes of pace. This changes the
staccato effect into a lively boucing rhythm:
«You sister
From pokot
Who grew in the open air?
You are fresh...
Ah!
Come,
Walk with me...» (SOO, P.138).
They language and imagery of Song of Ocol lack the references
to oral tradition which give Song of Lawino some of its richness, but Okot
shouws himself well able to create his own image.
From the point of view of the flow of the verse, Song of
Lawino is not particularly well constructed. The poetry is much too rugged and
devoid of Ly rical qualities. Brief Song of Lawino was originally
written in rhyming couplets and had a regular meter. The poem is told from the
poem of view of Lawino herself in the1st person.
Interpretation
The poet speaks about the graceful Giraffe which stands for
African culture, and of the monkey which sympolizes the Western culture in
section five. Along the poem Lawino in her monologue, addresses to her husband
Ocol. Lawino stands for African culture and Ocol for Western culture. While
analising the poems one can realize that there is a series of conflicts between
African culture and European culture. So Okot P'Bitek deals with a clash of two
cultures in his master piece.
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